# Strategy Alignment — 2026-05-07

> **Historical record — annotated 2026-05-17.** This survey assumed ACE was operational at the time of writing. Per 2026-05-17 operator decision, SF runs standalone; ACE is not currently operational. Survey content is preserved as historical context; do not treat its ACE references as current architecture.

Aligned the top-level SF docs and roadmap framing around the current architecture and end goal.

## Canonical direction

- **Forge** is the product.
- **UOK** is the internal execution kernel and leads runtime semantics.
- **Purpose-driven TDD** and the **eight PDD fields** are the core gate.
- **ACE Coder** is the multi-repo and large-scale path.

## How external systems are used

External CLIs are comparison inputs used to sharpen SF, not the destination:

- **Claude Code / Codex** for interaction and execution ergonomics
- **Aider / gsd-2** for direct execution patterns
- **Plandex** for workflow structure

When a pattern proves itself in practice, it should be absorbed into Forge/UOK as first-party behavior rather than preserved as a permanent external dependency in the product story.

## High-level milestone framing

1. Stabilize the UOK + PDD/TDD core.
2. Sharpen single-repo execution from external references where the fit is real.
3. Deepen autonomous reliability, evidence, recovery, and self-improvement.
4. Keep product surfaces coherent across CLI, TUI, and docs.
5. Absorb proven patterns into Forge/UOK and prepare concept-level convergence with ACE without collapsing the Forge/ACE split.
